Watching the dried husk of Muku turn into an unrecognizable paste beneath the spectral Susanoo fist, Ryuzetsu's pupils contracted slightly, but her expression remained surprisingly composed.
As mentioned before, Ryuzetsu still possessed a rational mind.
In her heart, her dear childhood friend had died years ago; she would stop at nothing to prevent Warden Mui from reviving a false, demonic Muku.
Her initial plan had been to walk over and speak a few final words to the desiccated corpse—essentially the equivalent of talking to a tombston.
It wasn't truly communicating with the deceased, just giving herself some psychological closure.
The pupil contraction was mainly because the sudden, brutal SPLAT was just visually shocking.
Even though the Hidden Grass Village had its fair share of troubles, she had never witnessed a girl casually smash a Kage-level threat into jelly without a second thought.
But Uchiha Hikari's move wasn't without reason.
Her combat experience from the bloody Warring States period told her that in such situations, one must utterly eliminate the root of the problem.
And indeed, her instincts were dead-on.
Muku had no chakra left, but with his literal dying breath, as Ryuzetsu had approached, he had attempted to launch one final, desperate spike attack from his sleeve.
When Muku was pounded into pulp by the Susanoo, his feeble attack was violently interrupted, sending a small, sharpened bone spike rolling harmlessly to Ryuzetsu's feet.
Seeing this spike, Ryuzetsu instantly understood the situation.
The very last trace of nostalgia in her heart completely vanished.
She stepped on the spike, crushing the fragile thing under her sandal.
That Muku tried to kill Ryuzetsu at the last moment wasn't strange at all.
Because he hadn't been redeemed by Talk-no-Jutsu.
In the original movie plot, after being "revived," this guy first stabbed his father Mui, then immediately turned around and stabbed Ryuzetsu and Naruto.
Killing his father was somewhat understandable—after all, Mui had selfishly sacrificed him to the Box in the first place.
Revenge made sense.
But what about the others? Satori didn't have any grand ambition to conquer the ninja world like other villains.
He simply enjoyed killing for killing's sake.
It was pure, unfiltered bloodlust dominating the mind.
"Thank you... for letting Muku rest in peace," Ryuzetsu walked over and bowed deeply to Uchiha Hikari.
Ryuzetsu's gratitude was entirely genuine and well-placed.
From her perspective, it was Hikari's Susanoo that saved Yugito, Hikari who defeated Satori, and Hikari who permanently stopped Muku's sins.
But these polite words sounded completely different to Hikari's deeply paranoid ears.
"I told you not to thank me! It was all Makoto's doing! If you want to thank someone, go find him!"
Hikari panicked, covering her ears and physically hiding behind Makoto's back to break line-of-sight.
This left everyone else utterly confused.
This didn't feel like receiving polite gratitude—it felt more like a civilian hiding from a loan shark.
Why was she so frantically eager to pass the buck?
Yugito, watching from the sidelines, narrowed her eyes.
She finally realized the pattern: This terrifying Uchiha girl is specifically, deathly afraid of being thanked by women.
What kind of cursed logic was that?
...
Everyone slowly reconvened on the main platform.
"Um... should we treat this one?" Omoi pointed awkwardly at the unconscious Warden sprawled on the stone floor.
Mui had been brutally subdued by the three Cloud bodyguards when he attempted to attack Samui earlier.
After taking Karui's devastating balls crushing, he was out cold and bleeding.
"No treatment," Tsunade refused flatly, without a second of hesitation.
"That's the right decision. We aren't wasting chakra on him. Omoi, just find some basic bandages and wrap his wounds so he doesn't bleed to death before the tribunal," the Raikage ordered with a sharp nod.
Actually, both the Kage had already reached a silent, unspoken understanding—Mui was finished.
He would absolutely be stripped of his position, and likely executed or locked in his own cells.
Regardless of whether this was technically the Hidden Grass Village's "internal affair," the minor village no longer had the authority to decide.
As the Warden of Hozuki Castle, Mui had intentionally deceived the Raikage with false diplomatic information and attempted to sacrifice two Kage and two Jinchuriki to a demonic box.
That was international treason and an act of war.
Regardless of whether he succeeded, his intentions were clear enough.
Omoi hauled the groaning Mui away for basic first aid.
"Thank you, Fifth Hokage. And you as well..."
After formally thanking Tsunade for her medical miracle, the Raikage turned his stern gaze to Uchiha Hikari.
Tsunade had provided the healing, but Hikari had directly saved lives on the frontline.
Without her manifesting the Susanoo as an absolute defense, even Tsunade's medical skills would have been useless—Yugito would have been turned into paste.
"Well, it's nothing," Hikari replied casually, stepping out from behind Makoto to accept the Raikage's thanks normally.
"???????" Yugito fell into a spiral of utter confusion again.
'Why was the Raikage's thanks accepted so easily?!'
'You were just hiding behind that guy when Ryuzetsu and I thanked you!'
'Do you just prefer giant, muscular old men?!'
"Speaking of which..." The Raikage crossed his massive arms, tentatively probing for intelligence.
"Wasn't the Uchiha clan exterminated by Itachi? Our intelligence stated that only Sasuke Uchiha remained in Konoha..."
The reason for his probing was simple.
The fraction of power Hikari had displayed earlier was overwhelmingly terrifying.
Even a weakened Two-Tails, when clad in her Susanoo, could unleash enough speed and power to instantly execute an ancient demon.
"Ah, correct. This is Hikari. She is an Uchiha, but she doesn't belong to the modern main clan," Tsunade explained smoothly, covering the time-travel origins.
"Just like how the Uzumaki Clan's nation of Uzushiogakure was destroyed, does that mean every single Uzumaki bloodline was cut off? Of course not."
Tsunade's comparison immediately made the Raikage understand.
That made perfect sense.
The Uchiha clan historically didn't have clan rules as strict and paranoid as the Hyuga's Caged Bird Seal.
If rogue Uchiha or defectors formed relationships with ninja from other villages during the chaotic Warring States or subsequent wars, leaving behind some offshoot descendants wouldn't be impossible.
"I see. Well, regarding Warden Mui's punishment and the future administration of Hozuki Castle... I believe we share the same opinion?" the Raikage asked, changing the subject back to serious geopolitical matters.
"We do," Tsunade nodded.
She then turned her gaze to Ryuzetsu, who had quietly followed the group.
"Little girl, will you take the Warden position?"
"Ah?! Me?! No, no, no!" Ryuzetsu was startled, quickly waving her hands and frantically shaking her head.
"Indeed. Having a young girl serve as the sole Warden facing thousands of the world's most vicious Kage-level criminals wouldn't be appropriate," Tsunade stroked her chin, nodding slightly.
Ryuzetsu had meant that she lacked the political qualifications and administrative capability.
But Tsunade was thinking entirely from a security perspective.
"Let's officially send a joint diplomatic envoy to the Hidden Grass Village to demand they install a competent replacement," the Raikage suggested.
He also felt it was highly inappropriate to have Ryuzetsu serve as the Warden.
However, his concern wasn't for Ryuzetsu's safety—he simply worried that an emotional, inexperienced operative wouldn't be able to maintain iron-fisted control here and might let the prisoners riot.
This brief exchange had officially sealed Mui and Hozuki Castle's fate.
Makoto didn't interrupt the political discourse.
For those edgy protagonists with rebellious or contrarian personalities, they would undoubtedly use this chaos to destroy Hozuki Castle entirely, grandly setting all the prisoners free to "stick it to the corrupt system."
Just like the reckless main characters in cheesy fanfiction.
In the original movie storyline, Naruto encountered a specific prisoner in Hozuki Castle who seemed pitiful, world-weary, and entirely innocent.
The prisoner solemnly claimed he had been sentenced to the Blood Prison simply because he "showed mercy and spared a child's life" during a mission.
At first glance, the audience is meant to think: Wow, what a compassionate, kind, and misunderstood hero!
The system is so corrupt for locking him up!
But upon closer, logical thought... Why was he in a position to spare a child in the first place?
Oh, right.
It turned out he spared one single child... while actively massacring an entire civilian village.
Yare yare daze.
Even during the darkest period of the "Blood Mist" era, rogue massacres of independent civilian villages weren't officially sanctioned missions.
This prisoner's village massacre was an act of pure, psychopathic terrorism.
For a crime like that, instead of being summarily executed on the spot, being imprisoned in Hozuki Castle was already the ninja world showing extreme judicial leniency.
How on earth could that guy sit in his cell and claim injustice just because he left one toddler alive in the ashes?
No.
Makoto wasn't going to break the prison open since these people were in here for a reason.
---------
Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator